His old franchise may be located in the desert, but Dale Hawerchuk knows he's frozen into the history of Winnipeg hockey, forever.

His old franchise may be located in the desert, but Dale Hawerchuk knows he’s frozen into the history of Winnipeg hockey, forever.

Hawerchuk will fly into town Tuesday morning and leave as the newly inducted member of the Winnipeg Jets Hall of Fame.

“I know the franchise is in Arizona,” Hawerchuk said over the phone, Monday. “But all us guys, we played in Winnipeg. That was the city we played for. It’s special to go in, and there will be many more to come.”

Hawerchuk is the lone member of just the second induction “class,” joining the Hot Line: Bobby Hull, Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson.

Like theirs, his influence on the fledgling franchise was enormous.

The Jets were the NHL’s worst team in 1980-81, just their second year in the league. Their reward was to draft first, overall, selecting a phenom from Toronto who was leading the Cornwall Royals to back-to-back Memorial Cup titles.

“I was just real fortunate Winnipeg had that first pick,” Hawerchuk said. “Because that was a good fit for me. I didn’t think that way when I first went there. But the place and the province grew on me, real fast.”

His doubts were soon quieted when he emerged from the back of a Brinks truck to a throng at Portage and Main for his official signing in the middle of summer.

“As a young kid going there, I was hockey crazy. And I soon realized the whole province is like that,” he said. “People really make it. Whenever I think back on it, I miss some of those days.

“Yeah, being 18 years old and paraded out at Portage and Main from a Brinks truck and signing my contract there – it was probably good I was too young and naive to understand what was happening.”

He was more than ready for the big leagues, though.

Hawerchuk began to rewrite the Jets record book immediately, becoming the youngest player in NHL history to record 100 points and earning the Calder Trophy as rookie-of-the-year.

He led the Jets to the largest single-season turnaround in league history: from nine wins to 33, and from 32 points to 80 – a 48-point jump.

“When you’re a first pick you know you’re going to a last-place team,” Hawerchuk said. “To get it turned around as fast as we did and to be a threat, year-in and year-out, I look back and I’m proud.”

In nine seasons with the Jets, he led the team in scoring every year, eclipsed 100 points five times and became the third-youngest player in NHL history to score 50 goals.

While Goal Magazine dubbed him “the mini-Gretzky,” Hawerchuk will always be known as “Ducky.”

“Scott Arniel brought it from Cornwall,” Hawerchuk said of his former teammate. “There was a guy who called me Howard the Duck, because he thought I skated like a duck a little bit. Ducky stuck there.”

Arniel says former junior teammate, the late Dave Ezard, coined the term, “Howie-Duck.”

“We kind of just chopped it down to Duck, and then Ducky,” Arniel said. “Everybody else kind of picked up on it.”

Arniel flew into Winnipeg Monday night for the occasion, along with Dave Babych and Dave Ellett.

“He challenged everybody to be better,” Arniel said of Hawerchuk. “He was such a driven guy to win. Whether we were playing Game 5 of the season or Game 25 or Game 75, he played the same way every night.

“We got to see an awful lot of Gretzky and those guys, and Dale wanted to be on that stage, as well.”

The Jets could never get past the Oilers to challenge for the Stanley Cup.

And when John Ferguson, the man who drafted Hawerchuk, lost his job as GM, No. 10’s days were numbered.

During the 1990 draft, Mike Smith traded him to Buffalo.

“Mike Smith and I never seemed to see eye-to-eye,” Hawerchuk said. “Right from Day 1 when I got there, he wasn’t one of my big supporters in the organization. And he kind of let me know that… and I guess I resented it the rest of my time there.”

Arniel, already in Buffalo, was part of the package coming to Winnipeg, ruining any chance of the two becoming teammates again.

The long-time friends will reunite, Tuesday, Arniel providing the assist, while Hawerchuk scores a place in Winnipeg hockey history.

“We’ve had a close friendship for many, many years,” Hawerchuk said. “We helped push each other along the way. I appreciate all my teammates. This night is special for myself, but I’m happy a lot of teammates are there, because it doesn’t happen alone.”

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